Jewelry pieces are conventionally permanent. In other words, once a jewel is fixed within a setting, the jewel and the setting may only be used or worn as a combined unit on one part of the body. This can be quite limiting, for example, if one wished to display or wear a particular jewel on one's finger during one occasion and on one's clothing in a brooch or pin during another occasion.
Interchangeable jewelry settings that overcome such a limitation are known. Usually, interchangeable jewelry settings allow a variety of stones or jewels to be used with a single setting. Alternatively, a single jewel or stone can be used in a variety of settings for adornment in a variety of locations. An early example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,864,371 to Prussian.
Most prior art interchangeable jewelry settings incorporate a first setting piece having a jewel fixed thereto and a second setting piece into which such first setting piece is secured for as long as the user wants it in that piece of jewelry. The first setting piece may be threadingly engaged with the second setting piece, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,160,723 to Lander. Other manners of engagement are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,581 to Furuyama, U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,310 to Lai, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,011 to DiGilio et al. Another popular method is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,095 to Tawil et al., wherein a bayonet-type locking arrangement having ramped engagement portions is used to secure the first setting within the second setting.
In each of the prior art references noted above, there is a chance that the first and second pieces may be inadvertently separated through hand manipulation. Such possibility arises from the downward placement of the first setting piece, having the jewel fixed thereto, into the second setting piece into which such first setting piece is placed. In such an arrangement, the engagement and disengagement of the first and second setting pieces may easily occur while the article of jewelry is being worn. While this arrangement may be convenient if it is desired to swiftly change gems or diamonds, it lacks a certain amount of security. Furthermore, because the engagement of the first and second pieces occurs primarily by hand, there are no security measures inherent in the structures of the prior art that prevent unwanted disengagement of the first and second pieces.
The setting of the present invention overcomes the inadequacies of the prior art by providing a secure means for releasable and interchangeable engagement of a gem with a jewelry piece. The construction of the setting prevents unwanted removal of the gem from the setting while the jewelry article is being worn and displayed by requiring engagement of the gem with the setting from the inside of the setting, not the outside of the setting. Thus, for example, if the jewelry item is a ring worn on a person's finger, the gem can only be inserted into the ring through the interior of the ring and not from the outer periphery of the ring. In addition, the gem is preferably engaged and disengaged from the setting by a special tool, which must preferably be used to insert, remove and interchange gems with the setting. Thus, unwanted disengagement of the gem from the setting is prevented because only the owner of the jewelry article would have possession of the tool.